Dermer: Hamas Deliberately Targets Civilians, Israel Does Not

Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and Face the Nation guest Ron Dermer said Sunday while Hamas was deliberately targeting civilians during its fighting, Israel would continue to make all efforts to avoid killing or hurting civilians on its end.

Host Bob Schieffer played a video during the interview from the Israel Defense Forces of a pilot being told that a target set to be attacked in Gaza had children inside, and thus he backed off.

"When our pilots are targeting a particular site, they try to make sure that it’s clear of civilians," Dermer said. "There are many, many military operations that are called off, because we see that there are civilians that are going to come into harm’s way. That’s the difference between us and Hamas. Hamas is deliberately targeting our civilians. They want to kill as many civilians in Israel as possible."

Dermer reminded the audience that Hamas is using civilians as human shields there, which has been reported on by the Washington Free Beacon. He added they place missile batteries near mosques and schools, making it difficult for Israel to fight the war in a surgical way. Nevertheless, Dermer said Israel would not deviate from fighting in a way that avoided civilian casualties.

During the interview, an alarm went off on Dermer’s phone notifying him that a rocket was being fired at the same city where his mother was born.